Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-08-19

firing one ever since to nulIiiy
the statute by its wholesale violation.
To this there are two parties-the RUM
sellers themselves and the men who
are already victims to the rum thirst.
1t may be set down as Q maxim. that
where q man has once become slave
to the drink habit, he will crafty that
accursed appetite if such qualification
be at all possible. No difficulty daunts
him, no obstacle stops him. And when
such men are met more than halfway
by the determined efforts of the rum
power to keep up the sale of the diff
ferent brands Of body-rot at whatever
risk, it readily becomes plain that the
enforcement of these laws is a most
difficult task.
The fact is, the rum power dare not
allow fair trial of prohibition. It
fights it to the bitter end. 1t knows,
in any locality from which the curse of
the saloon has been removed for suf-
fcient length of time to thoroughly
test the matter, that the people will
never return to it. The only hope of
the rum power in this country lies in
making the people believe that pro-
hibition is farce, and the law
dead letter upon the statute books.
If in any State there can be a
strict observance of the law for
one full year, there will never be any
further opposition to it to amount
to anything. What do we find in those
States which already have prohibition
enactments covering the entire State,
or local option governing a portion of
the counties? That the results have
been for good, and for good only. The
elementary schools for drunkards-the
saloons-are crushed out; the educa-
ton of boys in the drink habit is
stopped; the people are more prosper
Gus; the money which formerly went
into the pockets of the saloon-keepers
now goes into the channels of legiti-
mate trade; public order is much bet
ter observed; the jails have fewer in
mates; the courts of law have less work;
and everything is on the upgrade.
AS far as the experiment has gone,
its results are abundantly satisfactory.
Had it been failure in the States in
which such enactments are in opera
ton, we should find the friends of
temperance devising some other plan
for the extinction of the rum traffic.
But the reverse is the case. There
has been, within the past two or three
years, an enormous growth of the
prohibition sentiment. This is at
tributable to two things: First,
the defiant attitude and increased
audacity of the rum power itself;
second, the fact that as far as the
experiment has been tried, Prohibition
is proving grand success, and that the
longer the law is in operation in any
locality the less is the amount of oppo-
sition thereto. And this decrease in
opposition marks exactly the degree of
energy on the part of the officers Of the
law in enforcing prohibition. Men get
tired of constantly being law breakers.
Another fact is to be noted in this
connection-that there is no disposition
on the part of the people, where Pro-
hibition has once been tried, to go back
to the reign of Rum. If Prohibition
were to large extent Intellectual, if
the results of its enforcement were not
beneficial to the community at large,
especially in the moneyed sense, we
should find revolution in public opin-
ion. The great mass of those who had
at first upheld it would now cry for its
repeal. But there is nothing of the
sort. Not only do these men stand
firmly by the law, but large number
of its opponents. men who opposed
Prohibition on the personal liberty
plea, too, have become convinced that,
all things considered, it is the best
thing possible, and therefore give it
their adhesion.
This effort, then, to divide the forces
of Prohibition and to get up senti-
ment in favor of returning to moral
suasion, is simply an indication of the
increasing pressure of opposition on
the Rum Power. It will fail, as all
other efforts have failed, to stop the
rising tide of Prohibition. We be-
lieve the end is comparatively near at
hand. The movement in favor of Pro-
hibition is general, not local. There
is no State in which the agitation is
not increasing. It is not too much to
anticipate that within very few years,
at most, the united power of the law
and the people will have combined to
successfully pulverize the Rum Power.
The Turney Circular.
The following circular from Daniel
B. Turney, A. NJ, who last year was
the Prohibition candidate for Congress-
man in the Eighth district of Illinois.
and who will possibly next year be the
nominee of that party for Vice Presi-
dent of the United States, will I'M
doubtedly attract general attention,
being of more than mere local interest !:
PRoH1B1r1oN1srs We are on the
threshold of pivotal campaign. Our
young and patriotic party presents an
issue of such Importance that we should
all exert ourselves to poll in favor of
that party and it's issue the largest pos
sible vote in every locality. The Pro-
hibition party in 1883 must pave the
way for victory in 1892. Let it, with
indexible fidelity, Speak to the people
that they go forward" The public